Number of deaths in CervicalCheck controversy rises to 18

The number of women who have died in the CervicalCheck controversy has risen to 18.

The additional case was identified by the HSE’s Serious Incident Management Team yesterday after 17 women died from cervical cancer following false negative results to their smear tests.

209 cases have been audited, while 203 women and families have been contacted so far.

A memo released last week showed that HSE management were informed in July 2016 that CervicalCheck was preparing a media response to potential adverse headlines to the effect that "screening did not diagnose my cancer".

The memo also said that letters to inform women would be "paused".

The Department of Health said that documents relating to the CervicalCheck audit "were not brought to the attention of any Minister for Health".

Following the revelations, Tony O'Brien resigned as Director General of the HSE.

Meanwhile, Cabinet is due to meet today to discuss re-establishing a board to oversee the HSE.